Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Delirium (formerly acute confusional state, an ambiguous term that is now discouraged) [1] is a specific state of acute confusion attributable to the direct physiological consequence of a medical condition, effects of a psychoactive substance, or multiple causes, which usually develops over the course of hours to days.
The Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) is a diagnostic tool developed to allow physicians and nurses to identify delirium in the healthcare setting. [1] It was designed to be brief (less than 5 minutes to perform) and based on criteria from the third edition-revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R).
The 4AT is designed to be used as a delirium detection tool in general clinical settings, inpatient hospital settings outside of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), or in the community. The 4AT is intended to be used by healthcare practitioners without the need for special training, and it takes around two minutes to complete. [ 4 ]
It is however mostly used in mechanically ventilated patients in order to avoid over and under-sedation. Obtaining a RASS score is the first step in administering the Confusion Assessment Method in the ICU (CAM-ICU), [4] a tool to detect delirium in intensive care unit patients. The RASS is one of many sedation scales used in medicine.
Severe symptoms of serotonin syndrome include hyperthermia, delirium, and tachycardia that may lead to shock. Often patients with severe general medical symptoms, such as unstable vital signs, will be transferred to a general medical emergency department or medicine service for increased monitoring.
Treatment generally consists of verbal deescalation, voluntary sedation with antipsychotics or benzodiazepine, or involuntary treatment with antipsychotics, benzodiazepines or ketamine through intramuscular injection as a means of chemical restraint through rapid tranquilization possibly combined with physical restraint. [2]: 624 [3]: 152
Brain disruption from sedation can lead to an eight times [4] increased risk of the development of ICU delirium. This is associated with a doubled risk of mortality [5] during hospital admission. For every one day of delirium, there is a 10% increased risk of death. [6]
The incidence of emergence delirium after halothane, isoflurane, sevoflurane or desflurane ranges from 2–55%. [10] Most emergence delirium in the literature describes agitated emergence. Unless a delirium detection tool is used, it is difficult to distinguish if the agitated emergence from anesthesia was from delirium or pain or fear, etc.